Down Towards the Healing
by Ryokko-Chan
Summary: Things are rough all over, even for Sodapop and Cherry's kid, who lives in modern times. Just because years pass, it doesn't mean that the problems will. [Outsiders, with a modern twist.]
1. The Unconceivable Conceived

**Authors Note:** I know, I know. I shouldn't be starting _another_ new story. I can't help it though. These ideas just keep coming to me and hey, I've gotta roll with the punches. Haha, well. Yeah. This is one of those 'next generation' things or whatever. I don't usually like writting them because I always feel that it has nothing to do with said series, except maybe the parents. But whatever. Here I go.

Disclaimer: If I owned The Outsiders, I would be writting a book and not fanfiction. Plus, Johnny would be alive. I do, however, own Remy and that whole gang. I also don't own "Down Towards the Healing" which is a song by Lovedrug.

**Chapter One - The Unconceivable Conceived**

_Ponyboy_

Sodapop Curtis, my older brother, married Cherry Valance about twenty years ago. It's kind of a weird concept, Cherry and Soda, but if you thought about it long enough you realized that they were perfect for each other. After Soda's girlfriend, Sandy, went to Florida and dumped him, he started hanging out with Cherry more and more. Before you knew it, he was popping the question.

Their wedding was really nice. It was kind of calming to see everyone - Soc or Greaser - come together for this wedding. Two-Bit bought the happy couple a six pack of cherry soda as a wedding present. Soda still has one of those bottles sitting in his room.

Soon enough, Cherry was pregnant and they were having a baby. Let me tell you something about this baby. She was one of the prettiest things you've ever seen. It's kind of hard not to be when you've got parents as good looking as Sodapop and Cherry. She had Cherry's red hair and more or less her face as well, but her eyes were a mix of both of theirs. A light, happy brown mixed in with green - hazel, if you will. They named her Remy Scarlett Curtis. Sodapop thought it would be cute if her middle name regarded her hair, like Cherry's name does.

Now, you may be wondering about me. When I turned twenty, my brothers and I decided to move out to California. We were all sick of being labeled, and thought it would be nice to start over. I live somewhere in the city with my fiance, Cindy and I work as a screen play writter. Darry finally got the money to be able to go college, and Sodapop owns a little family restaurant.

Enough with this boring stuff, though. I think its time to get on with the story.

_Remy_

"Wow. Would you look at that.." I followed my friend Lucy's gaze to see a group of three guys. We were currently in the food court of the mall, enjoying the last week of our summer vacation. I had to admit, they were pretty cute. One of them caught Lucy's eye and waved and Lucy, being who she is, waved back. I rolled my eyes a bit. It's not that I didn't like meeting cute guys, its just that I didn't like meeting cute guys when I was with Lucy. You see, Lucy is gorgeous. She's half asian, half white and has really long, silky smooth black hair and dark blue eyes. I was going to suggest making a run for it while we still had time, but it was too late.

"Well, hello there ladies," one of them said, even though you could totally tell he didn't even notice my presence. He was tall with blond hair at just the right length and blue eyes. The guy standing at his right had light brown hair and light colored eyes. He looked a bit younger then the blond, but maybe he was just smaller. The other boy was standing there, kind of nervously. He had longish black hair and really big black eyes. We sort of made eye contact for a second, but I broke it off quickly.

The blond held out his hand for Lucy to shake.

"The name's Kory Adams," he said in some suave voice. Lucy giggled a bit and shook it.

"Lucy Sherman. This here's my friend, Remy Curtis." Lucy nudged towards me and I gave a small wave, even though Kory was not intrested, the brunette was completely preoccupied with something else, and the one with the black hair..well..I wasn't sure what was going on with him.

I fixed my skirt out of boredness, which Lucy seemed to notice.

"So, uh, who're your friends?" Kory seemed a bit agitated that he had to take time away from Lucy to introduce his friends.

"Lucas Bourke, and Brody Hall."

"Um, I'd prefer Luke, actually," the brunette said, but Kory didn't pay attention. I felt sort of bad for them actually, and I was a bit bored.

"So, how old are you guys?" Luke looked a bit suprised I was talking to him.

"Ah-fifteen." He looked at Brody, who looked like he was totally out of this room, but finally answered with a quiet, "Sixteen." Luke sighed.

"Don't mind him, he's not usually this shy.." I smiled a bit.

"Well, I'm Remy. Remy Curtis," I said, holding out my hand which Luke shook.

"Yeah uh, we know."

"You do?" Luke opened his mouth to speak, but Brody interupted him.

"We go to the same school." I raised an eyebrow. So, he speaks.

"We do?"

"Yeah. I was in your algebra class last year." Oops. I racked my brain, trying to remember him being in any of my classes, and then I did. This guy, Austen, who thought he was just the hottest thing in town (and I mean..yeah..so maybe he was) would make fun of Brody all the time for being so quiet. I can't believe I didn't remember that.

"Oh! Right. I remember.." There was a bit of awkward silence, which was soon broken when Lucy and Kory had finished their talk. Both of them had earned phone numbers.

"Well boys, time for us to be leaving now. Nice meeting you, ladies." Kory smiled then walked away, Luke and Brody following behind. Once they were out of earshot, Lucy squealed. It didn't really get to me though, I was thinking about Brody for some reason.

"Remy! Can you believe this? School hasn't even started yet and I've got a potential boyfriend! And get this, he's ninteen!" That got my attention.

"He's _what_? Luce, you can't possibly be thinking of going out with him!" Lucy just shrugged. I wondered what a ninteen year old was doing hanging around two sixteen year olds, anyways.

_Brody_

"So, how old are you guys?" I looked up a bit startled that Remy was talking to us. I heard Luke answer, but it took me a while to give my own. God, she was really pretty. Ever since last year I've thought that about her. Every time I told my friends, though, they'd look at me like I was nuts and say, "You know who's pretty? That Lucy Sherman girl," or something like that.

I looked to my left to see Luke, bored out of his mind. He seemed a bit relieved when Kory said it was time to leave. To be perfectly honest, I was pretty glad too. Standing there with Remy was just so..awkward. Especially since she didn't even remember me.

Once we left the food court, Kory whistled.

"Isn't that something? Did you ever picture me picking up a girl like Lucy Sherman?" He looked at me with this weird look.

"I can't believe your still going for that Curtis girl. I mean, she's cute and all but there are so many others like..well, like Lucy."

I just rolled my eyes and pretended not to hear him, which was better then anything I could've said. If you were ever a smart-ass to Kory, you'd probably end up looking like one.

"You know who I think is cute?" Luke mumbled. Kory didn't hear him and I was too out of it to answer him, so he didn't tell us who.

_Lucy_

Remy was always open to talking to cute guys, so I don't know why this time it made her so out of it.

"What's up, Rem?" I asked. She made a sound and rested her head in her hand. She looked at me for a second and then answered.

"Ninteen? C'mon, Lucy. You can get _any_ guy in our school and you go for the ninteen year old you just met?" I looked at her, analyzing her. I've known Remy since kindergarden.

"That's not whats bothering you." Remy looked at me with a weird look. Ha, I guess this lie detector thing creeps her out a bit.

"What was..I..nevermind. So what do you want to do now-"

"Ah, no. You're not getting away with it that easily. What's bugging you?"

"It's nothing, really Luce. I would tell you." I looked her over again, and decided to give up for now.

"Okay..if you say so."

**----------**

**PHEW:** So, now you've been introduced to Remy, Lucy, Kory, Brody, annd Luke. If you didn't notice, Lucy is basically the amazingly gorgeous girl at school, and Remy is her 'side-kick'. I'll introduce you to their other best friend, Luke's family, and some other people. Haha. Reviews would be nice, by the wayy.


	2. The Scheme of Things

**A/N:** Alriight. So now we're going to meet Luke's family, and some more people from Remy's school. So uh, here we go! Oh and also, some things in this story may seem a bit familiar to you but that's because some characters/events will be based on events/characters from The Outsiders. Haha, okay. And also, the title of this story is somewhat irrelevant to this all, but whatever.

**Chapter Two - The Scheme of Things**

_Lucas_

After an eventful day at the mall with Brody and Kory, (yeah right) I was finally home. Sometimes I wondered why Brody and I hung around Kory so much. Ever since I was little, him and my oldest brother, Chandler, have been really good friends. Kory has been on the wrong side of the tracks for as long as I can remember, so I guess Brody and I considered ourselves 'cool' when he asked us to hang out with him.

"Heya, Luke," my other brother, Neil, said as I came in the house. Neil was seventeen and really happy all the time. I mean it. It's pretty hard to get Neil down. The only time I've really seen him way down in the gutter was at our parents funeral. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention..six years ago, when I was seven, my parents got in a car crash and died. Chandler and I were pretty sad about it, obviously, but I think Neil was hit the most. With him, every little person makes a big impact in his life, even the grocer, so imagine how hard it must've been to loose someone he really loved. He's emotional like that. But God, you should see the way girls are all over him. You'd think he was James Franco or something. Some people say I look like him, but if I did my life would be just a little different.

"Hey Neil," I said, sitting on the couch next to him. He was watching some show on a random channal. About ten minutes into it, though, he started vibrating his legs making the whole couch shake.

"Hey, calm down will you?"

"Sorry.." he muttered, standing up. Neil couldn't sit through anything without getting bored. The door opened then and Chandler walked in. Chandler was eighteen and one of the toughest looking guys I've ever seen. Partly, I think, because he played football in high school.

"Hey guys, I'm home!" he yelled, walking into the living room with a bag of groceries. He put the bags down at looked at me. "Luke, why are you watching TV? You told me you'd clean your room if I let you go to the mall." I rolled my eyes.

"Relax, Chan. I just got here." I stood up and headed up stairs. Chandler and I used to get along pretty well until my parents died. Since then, he's become the self appointed parent machine. He's only eighteen, you'd think he'd lighten up a bit.

"And Luke," he called up the stairs, "if it's not done by dinner, you can't go to the movies tomorrow!" I groaned and slammed the door, my lame way of rebelling against Chandler.

"C'mon, Chandler. Take it easy. He's only fifteen," I heard Neil say. That was pretty much the routine. Chandler gets mad at me, and Neil tries to calm him down. I think the reason is partly because he likes Neil better then me. Hell, everyone likes Neil better then me. I think its impossible _not_ to like to him. But Chandler, Chandler's another story. He really needs to learn to take it easy.

_Mallory_

"Kory Adams? You're joking! Lucy can't go out with him he's ninteen!" I was on the phone with one of my best friends, Remy.

"Yeah, I know. I tried to tell her but she wouldn't listen. He brought two friends. Brody Hall and Luke what's-his-face."

"Brody Hall? Well, I'm jealous."

"Why?" I scoffed.

"He's way cute."

"Yeah, I guess so.." There was some type of weird tone in her voice, like she didn't really believe what she was saying. I heard some noises in the backround on her end, and someone yelling, "Remy!". She sighed.

"Hey, Mal. I've gotta go wash the dishes. We're still up for the movie tomorrow, right?" I nodded, even though I knew she couldn't see me.

"Yep. See you then. Bye!" Remy hung up, and I put the phone back on the receiver. I rolled over on my bed, staring up at my ceiling. I was debating on whether to call Lucy or not. She wasn't dumb or anything, but Lucy always tends to get herself into sticky situations. Plus, I havn't heard too many good things about this Kory Adams. Before I could decide, though, I was fast asleep.

_Remy_

"Hey, Sodapops!" I yelled as I ran down the stairs. That was my nickname for my oddly named dad. I figured, why say 'Dad' or 'Pop' when I've got my own Sodapops? "I'm heading over to Mallory's and then we're gonna catch a movie later." Dad came out from inside the kitchen, and looked me up and down.

"You're pretty dressed up for just going to the movies."

"I am? How?" I looked down at myself. I was just wearing a plain old pink summer dress. Dad got a funny look on his face.

'"Well..are there any boys coming.

"Dad!"

"What?" I rolled my eyes. My Uncle Pony had told me how much of a ladies man my dad was, so I don't understand what the big deal with me hanging out with boys was anyways.

"No, dad. There are no boys coming," I said in a bored tone. He considered this, then nodded.

"Okay, okay. Be home by seven-thirty, you don't want to miss my _famous_ macaroni and cheese, now would you?" I made a disgusted face. My mom had just left that morning to visit her family in Oklohoma, which meant that for God knows how long I was a stuck with my dads lame cooking.

"Oh, no. Bye, dad!" I said as I grabbed my bag from the living room couch, and headed for Mallory's.

Ten minutes later, I was in front of Mallory's house. I knocked and waited for an answer. When the door opened, I saw Mallory looking pretty down.

"Who died?"

"Lucy canceled on us to hang out with Kory."

"What?" We had a rule. No canceling unless its at least five hours before the schedueld event. I mean sure, we've all broken that rule thousands of times, but it's different when you're ditching us for Kory Adams.

"Well, whatever. Her loss. You ready?" Mallory nodded and stepped outside her house.

"So.." Mallory said five minutes later, trying to start a conversation. "You _really_ don't think that Brody kid is cute?" Oh jeez. I rolled my eyes.

"What's up with all this questioning? I've told you a million times, and I'll tell you again. Yes, I think he's cute!" I clamped my hand over my mouth after I realized what I said. "No! I meant no!" Mallory smirked.

"Mhmm..right." I sent her a look that meant I wasn't joking.

"Seriously, Mal! Why do you keep asking me about this?"

"Aw, c'mon Remy. The whole sophomore class minus you knows that he's had a crush on you since last year." I felt my cheeks get hot, but tried to brush it off.

"What's your point?"

"My point is.." she lingered on the last word, and smiled, "that if you liked him too then maybe you guys can go out and you can have your first boyfr-"

"Mallory! Stop it!" Ever since eighth grade when she and Lucy both got their first boyfriends (well, more like Lucy's tenth, but still) Mal's been playing matchmaker for me. Honostly, that's not the way I want everything to happen and it's turning me away from the boyfriend idea more than ever.

"What? I'm just trying to help!"

"Time to stop helping!"

There were a few minutes of silence, until we reached the movie theater. After buying our tickets, we headed into the theater, taking seats near the middle. That's when we heard some movement and then, "Oh shit!" coming from behind us. Mallory and I looked at each other.

"Lucy?"

_Lucy_

Shit. They found me. "Hey Mal, Remy," I said with a big smile on my face while trying to fix my hair. Kory groaned and sank in his seat.

"God dammit. People always have to ruin a good time.." he muttered. After a few moments of us staring, things went on as they normally do in this situation. Remy started laughing her head off, while Mallory gave me the 'good friend' lecture. Behind Kory, I could hear his friends who seemed to be getting a kick out of this.

"Told ya you should've taken the backrow, Kory."

"Shut the hell up, Vince!"

Kory had brought along Luke and Brody again, as well as Luke's older brother Neil and some other guy, Vince.

After recovering from her laughter, Remy came in at an attempt to save the day.

"Mal, relax. It's not like you've never done this.." Remy's sentence wavered though, as she caught the eye of one of the guys sitting behind me and smiled. By the time I turned back to see who it was, whoever it was had already turned away. I looked at Remy with a questioning look, but she didn't notice. She was too busy trying to get her face to stop turning beet red, I guess.

"Luce? Lucy? Are you listening to me?"

"Huh? What? Uh, yes." I turned to Mallory, and smiled.

"Mallory, I'm sorry for blowing you off like that. I promise it won't happen again. Can we all get back to the movie now?" Kory sat up reluctantly and Mallory turned around, but I caught Remy looking at the same guy again. I was about to ask her, but Kory had other plans for me.

"Hey, babe. Let's get back to where we left off.."

_Brody_

Oh jeez. I can't believe that we somehow ended up running into her _again_. I swear this must be karma for turning down Leslie Morgan last week. I slouched down in my seat, praying that she didn't see me. I heard Neil and Luke talking in hushed voices.

"Who's that?" Neil said, looking past Kory and Lucy to the row in front.

"Who's who? Mallory Cooper?"

"No, no. The one next to her. The redhead." Luke strained to see over Kory's head.

"Oh. That's Remy Curtis," he said, then raised his eyebrow at his brother. "Why?"

"No reason. I've just never seen her around before."

I frowned a bit. I've been told my whole life that if I just stopped being so quiet, and so soft, and so shy I could easily get any girl. But would would that make me? Every other guy in the world.

_Vince_

"Well, that went well, " I said as Brody, Neil, Kory, Lucy, Luke and I left the theater. Kory scoffed. For the remainder of the movie, Remy and Mallory turned around a total of fifty-million times, Kory and Lucy managed to basically get it on in the two seat range they had, and Neil and I threw popcorn and ice at the people in the movie which ended up with all of us getting kicked out. A few seconds later, Remy and Mallory exited. All of us, minus Kory and Lucy, gave them our sorriest looks. Brody had his hands in his pockets and was staring at the floor, Neil was kicking the ground, and Luke and I had our best sad faces on.

"Aw, don't worry about it guys. The movie was sucking anyways," Remy said with a smile. I shrugged a bit and stepped towards the two girls.

"I don't think we've met before," I said, holding out my hand for one of them, I think Mallory, to shake. "Vincent Hunter."

The girl giggled a bit, then shook my hand. "Mallory Cooper," she said, smiling. I smiled back, then turned to Remy. "And you, miss?" Remy smiled politely.

"Remy Curtis, nice to meet you," she said. I nodded a bit, then turned to look at the rest of the group.

"Well, c'mon boys. Don't be rude, introduce yourself." I had been talking in a fake suave voice for a while, so the rest of the guys rolled their eyes but Mallory laughed again. Neil stepped forward and stretched his arm out to Remy.

"Neil Bourke," he said with that same, huge grin he always had on.

_Remy_

"Neil Bourke," he said, with his arm stretched out towards me. He had on this huge grin that I've really never seen him without. I reached my arm towards his and shook it.

"Remy Curits." Truth be told, I was kind of getting sick of introducing myself, especially using my last name. It was all too formal. I mean really, we're all kids here.

"Pleasure to meet you, Remy," he said as he took his arms back, his playful brown eyes sparkling. (You'd be descriptive, too, if you were looking at this boy).

"The pleasure is _all_ mine.." I muttered quietly, as he turned and walked towards his friends.

"Luke's older brother," Mallory whispered to me. "Basically the prince of the junior class."

"Wow. The genes in that family ain't too shabby.."

"Look who's talking." Mallory smiled then walked back towards the group.

"So, guys," she said, trying to get everyones attention, "what do you say we grab some lunch or something? I'm starved." There was a murmur of agreement from everyone except for me and Kory.

"Sorry, kids. Can't today. I've got some business to take care of," he said before leaving. Lucy looked down for a bit. I don't know what she saw in this Kory boy. Once he left, I looked at them.

"I don't know, guys. You can go but I don't think I will.." There was no real reason for me not going, except for the fact that we barely knew these guys and that I wanted to get home and..and..I don't know what, but I wanted to be home. I felt kind of bad for leaving my dad alone.

"C'mon, Remy. Just come for an hour or two," Mallory said, a pleading look on her face. I sighed.

"Okay, okay. I'll come." I guess Mallory's boyfriend number three was going to be one of these guys.

------

**WOW:** That was kinda long. Haha. Well, for me at least. Yayy. So, now that we're on the third chapter _hopefully_ the storyline will start picking up now. R&R pleasee&thanks.


	3. Stop and Think

**A/N:** Oh yes, chapter three. This is the chapter where some secrets are revealed, some realtionships plant their seeds, and the gang celebrates their last day of freedom. Enjoyy!

Discalimer: "I own The Outsiders!" - S. E. Hinton. "I don't!" - Me.

**Chapter Three - Stop and Think**

_Remy_

"Remy. Truth or dare?" A week after the movie incident, and I had somehow ended up in Lucy's basement along with Mallory, Vince, Luke, Neil, and Brody. Kory and Chandler, Luke and Neil's other brother, were there as well, but in their own corner playing cards.

"Mmm..truth?" I heard a bunch of scoffs.

"Wimp!" Vince said in between coughs. I shot him a glare then looked back at Mallory, who seemed in deep thought.

"Who in this group..do you want to kiss the most?" I rolled my eyes.

"Oh please, Mal. What is this, junior high?" Mallory folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow.

"Avoiding the question, are we?" I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Remy, Remy," Vince said, taking a seat next to me and putting his arm around my shoulder. "I know it's tough, but I think its time for you to just tell everyone. We all know you have a massive crush on me, anyways." I scoffed.

"Oh yes, Vince. I am madly in love with you," I said sarcastically as I pried his arm off of me.

"You guys, this game is lame!" Neil cried out as he layed on his back. "I feel like we're missing someone."

"We are, Ben's not here. Late as usual.."

"Somebody say my name?" We all turned to the basement entry way to see a tall, skinny boy. Ben, I'm gussing. He had auburn, almost red hair and the most amazing blue eyes I've ever seen.

"Ben!" all the boys excalimed as he walked in and took a seat.

"What's this? New comers? Jeez, guys. My vacation was only two weeks, and you've already replaced me?" Luke stood up.

"This is Lucy Sherman, Mallory Cooper, and Remy Curtis," he paused and looked at us. "It's really a long story, and I'll explain it all later." Ben smiled.

"Pleasure to meet you, ladies." I'm usually all up for meeting people, but it was getting kind of annoying now. Ben took a seat on the ground.

"So, what's going on here?"

"A whole bunch of nothing," I said, standing up. "I'm gonna get a soda, anybody want anything?" Brody jumped up after Vince nudged him.

"Yeah, I'll come with you." I nodded and we headed up the stairs. I was reminded of what Mallory said about him. This boy couldn't like me, could he? I mean, she must've gotten her facts wrong or something.

Once in the kitchen, we decided to pour cokes for everyone.

"Brody, can you get me one of the glasses up there?" Brody nodded and reached for one of the glasses, which made the sleeve of his shirt to go down to reveal a huge bruise. My eyes went wide.

"Brody..what's that?" He turned to me, then quickly pulled down his sleeve.

"Ah, nothing. It's nothing. Do we have enough for everyone?" I nodded slowly as I put the cups and the tray. There were a few seconds of silence until I broke it.

"Did you get in a fight or something?"

"No." More silence.

"Brody.." I said, taking the glass from his hand and putting it on the table, "your parents don't do this to you, right?" Brody looked away, an ashamed look on his face.

"Oh my God. Brody, I-"

"It's nothing! Really, Remy. It doesn't happen all the time, I just made him mad. Really don't worry about it," he said hurridly as he grabbed the tray and headed into the basement. I stood still for a few seconds before following him.

_Vincent_

Brody and Remy walked in with a tray of drinks in their hands. Remy looked wide-eyed and shocked, while Brody looked..well, like he always does. Kind of sad and ashamed of something. A few minutes before they came in, I had broken out the guitar and was making up random songs about people. I wasn't much of a guitar player, I took lessons for about a year when I was ten, but I knew enough to make a short little song.

"And this one," I said, strumming a cord as I scanned the room for my next victim, "is for Miss Mallory Cooper." She smiled at me and I started playing a bit.

"_Mallory, you are oh so flowery. I wish you would hold me and I wish you would shower me._" There were a couple of giggles, and I went on. "_Oh my Mallory, I wish you would see that buzzing bee's don't live in tree's and that you and me are meant to be._" The group applauded.

"Wow, Vince. That was very deep," Lucy said, sarcastically. I shrugged.

"I know," I said. Mallory laughed.

"Thank you, Vince. I will treasure that for the rest of my life." I smiled at her. Mallory was very different from other girls I knew. She wasn't shy, but she was very subtle and..I don't know, she was _pretty_. I looked in the corner to see Remy and Brody, discussing something very intensely. Neil was laying on the couch, his legs hanging over the side and Ben was sitting leaning against the couch, drumming on his knees. Kory and Chandler stood up.

"We're leaving now. Luke, do you have a ride home?" Luke groaned.

"Yes, Chandler. Why aren't you asking Neil the same question?"

"Neil's older than you."

"By one year! Big deal!" But Chandler and Kory were already out the door. I patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, Luke. It's just because he's worried about you." Luke scoffed.

"Yeah, well he shouldn't be. I'm not a baby I can take care of myself."

"Ah, Shit!" Remy yelled. We all turned to look at her, and she looked back at us, shocked at how loud she'd spoken.

"I forgot my dad was working late tonight.." she said quietly, sitting back in her chair. She looked to Lucy who shook her head.

"Sorry, Rem. Dad's taking me out to dinner when he gets home."

Remy turned to Mallory. "I'm at my dad's place tonight." She let out a small groan.

"Hey, uh, Remy?" Luke said, "You can stay at my place until he gets back." Neil, who I swear was asleep two seconds ago, sat up intently. Remy let out a relieved sigh.

"You sure?" Luke nodded.

"Sure, it's no problem."

There was a sound of a car horn coming from outside.

"That's my dad," Mallory said, standing up. "Goodbye! See you all at school tomorrow!" We all let out groans. School. I had totally forgotten about that. At least this year we were sophomores instead of dumb freshman. I strummed a few cords then looked up to see Mallory looking at me. We made eye contact for a few seconds, but she quickly looked away. I didn't say anything, just smirked.

_Lucas_

Neil, Remy, and I ended up walking home from Lucy's, agreeing not to tell Chandler about it. The walk was actually pretty plesant, and it was the first time I actually got to a get a good look at Remy, seeing things you don't see everyday. Like, I noticed that even though she was a redhead, it was a lighter, almost pinkish, sort of red. I'd always thought that she it was just full on red. She and Neil seemed to hit it off really well, though. Man, they were laughing every two seconds about something I didn't understand.

When we finally got home, we spent our time in the living room. Remy was sitting on the arm chair and me and Neil were on the couch.

"So, where are your parents?" she asked. Neil and I looked at each other, not sure what to do. Remy's smile faded.

"Oh, I..um.." Neil held up his arm for her to stop.

"No, it's okay. You don't need to appologize. Our parents died six years ago in a car wreck. It's just been me, Luke, and Chan since then." I winced a bit, waiting for the synthetic pity I got from everyone when I told them this. Remy, however, just looked down and nodded. It kind of looked like she was unsure of what to say. A few seconds later she looked up.

"I'm sorry. Really. I don't know what I'd do without my parents. You guys are very lucky to have each other.." Neil and I nodded and there was an awkward silence.

"So, ah," Neil cleared his throat, "how's your love life going?" In a matter of seconds, sad, dopey, Neil was gone and replaced with the charming, ladies man, Neil. The one we were all so familiar with.

Remy's face went a little pink.

"Mm..it's um..nonexistant, at the moment." She shifted a bit uncomfortably in her seat, which Neil picked up on and changed the subject.

"What's your favorite book?"

"Huh?"

"Your favorite book. What is it?" Remy looked at him with a funny look on her face, but smiled a little. I didn't want to ruin the moment by telling her that Neil had only read about three books in his life, only one of them for fun.

"Well, uh..what's yours?" Remy asked. Neil leaned back on the couch a bit.

"Promise you won't laugh?" She nodded.

"_Little Women_." I stiffled a laugh. I remember when he had read that book. It was just last year and he obsessed over it for weeks.

"Really?" Remy said, an amazed look on her face. "Wow. That's my favorite too." Neil blinked.

"You don't think its weird that I like it?"

Remy shook her head. "Not at all. I think it's cute." She smiled and I could tell Neil got a little embarassed. The thing with Neil is that he rarely ever blushed. Instead, he did this weird thing with his hands whenever he was embarassed. It's really hard to explain, but you'd only notice it if you really knew him.

Someone tapped on the window and we saw Remy's dad standing on the other side, waving her over.

"Time to go, I guess. Thanks a bunch for letting me stay over guys. See you tomorrow!" She waved quickly, then left. Neil watched her leave, then sighed a bit.

"Man. That girl is really something else."

I raised my eyebrows at him, but he didn't notice. He was still staring at the door.

_Brody_

I was stuck at Lucy Sherman's house with no ride home. Mallory, Luke, Neil, and Remy had left a while ago, and I figured I'd just get a ride with Ben but he left without telling me, taking Vince with him. And I sure as hell didn't want to call my parents up. It's not like they'd come, anyways. Lucy offered to give me a ride, but I was saving that as a last resort. Lucy lived on the good side of town in what could be called a mansion. She would probably think differently of me if she saw my sad excuse for a house. Either way, Lucy lived with only her dad and he wasn't home yet. Rumor has it that her mom had run off with some rich guy (because _this_ wasn't rich enough for her?) when Lucy was eight or nine.

So like I said, I'm stuck at Lucy's house with no ride home. Any other male species would be pumped to be in my position, but not me. Why? Because I'm the stupid one that likes her best friend.

Currently, I was in Lucy's living room, dialing Vince's number on her phone. It rang for a while until I heard a _click_.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Vince. Are you home?"

"Yeah. Where are you?"

"Lucy's house. Do you think you could come and get me?" There was some silence. I know Vince didn't want to come and get me, but he was the only person who knew about my parental situation. Well, besides Remy, I guess. God, I was so stupid for letting my guard down. She probably thinks I must be a real bad kid for making my parents hit me.

"Sure. I'll be there soon." Vince snapped me out of my daydream.

"Thanks a lot, Vince."

"Yeah, whatever. See you later," he said before hanging up the phone. I put the phone back on the receiver to see Lucy standing there.

"Find a ride yet?" I nodded. Lucy took a seat next to me on the couch. Her perfectly clean, white couch. This was the first time I'd ever actually been alone with Lucy. I know she has the whole physical attraction thing down, but really she's sort of boring. All we talked about was school, friends, stuff like that. I was relieved when Vince finally came to get me. Once we were in the car, he shook his head.

"Dude. I wish you knew how lucky you are." I rolled my eyes. I didn't even want to start this subject. I was just looking forward to getting home, sleeping, and being able to see everyone again tomorrow.

_Remy_

I can't tell you how excited I was for school the next day. Since the beginning of freshman year, I was waiting for this time to come. My hair is exactly how I want it finally, falling down in soft curls down the small of my back. I had gotten my braces off two months ago, and those dumb horomone-ey pimples were gone. For good, I hoped. Not only that, but I finally had the class I want. I had already done my PE credit last year, so that was out of the way and this year I'd be taking French and photography. I had spent hours picking out my outfit, finally deciding on a pair of jeans and a baby blue v-neck sweater. Basically, I was stoked for the first day.

My dad and I were eating breakfast, but I just couldn't eat. Partly because my dad makes gross pancakes, and partly because I was nervous.

"What's up, Remy? You havn't touched your food."

"I'm not too hungry, dad." I looked at the time. "I should probably get going. I'm meeting Mallory and Vi-" I stopped myself. I discovered that Vince lives on the same street as Mallory and I, so we were all going to walk to school together. However, my dad did not need to know this. I wish you could've heard the lecture he gave me in the car when he picked me up from Luke's last night. I can't understand why he's so protective. Whenever I ask him, he just gives me this sad look and says, "Because love hurts sometimes, Remy."

"Mallory." I said with finality. Dad gave me a weird look.

"Just you and Mallory?" I nodded.

"Yeah. I'm just so used to saying Lucy afterwards. Well, I have to go. Love ya dad, bye!" I gave him a kiss and ran before he could question me any further.

The whole walk to school I was jumpy, but Mal and Vince didn't really notice. Honestly, they are the biggest flirts I've ever met in my life. Vince kept joking around and nudging her, while Mallory giggled. Yes, giggled. Not laugh. It seemed like three years later when we finally got to the school. Ben, Luke, Neil, and Brody were sitting on the steps in front of the school, waving at us once they spotted us. My face got hot when I saw Neil, who gave me a quick smile.

"He was the one who smiled at you during the movie last week, huh?"

I jumped a bit as a hand touched my shoulder, and turned around to see a smirking Lucy.

"I, uh..what are you talking about?"

"Neil Bourke, that's what I'm talking about," she whispered as we got closer to the boys. "Where's Kory?" she asked, mostly to herself, as she looked around. It's kind of weird to think that if Lucy hadn't met Kory, we wouldn't have become such good friends with the guys.

Vince sat down in between Ben and Luke, and Mallory sat in front of him with Brody and Lucy on either side. I stood there for a second, looking at Neil who was sitting two steps above them, just staring up into the sky. I took in a deep breath, then sat next to him.

"Hey," I said, smiling a bit. He looked at me, the trademark cheery Neil look on his face.

"Hey," he said back. There was some silence while we both sat there. I moved my hand, which had previously been on my lap, to the bottom of the step, but Neil had done the same at the same time, causing our hands to brush.

"Sorry," we both muttered at the same time, then laughed a bit nervously. Neil faced forward, fumbling with his hands a bit.

"Hey, Remy. I was just wondering, uh-" Dammit. The stupid bell rang right then. He could've gone on with what he was saying, but the moment was killed. I just sort of shrugged and stood up.

"I guess I'll see you at lunch," I turned to move but he grabbed my hand.

"Wait!" Neil stood up as ther rest of our group made their way through the doors.

"I just.." he kissed me on the cheek quickly, then smiled. "See you later, Remy."

It was amazing how much I liked him after only two weeks.

-----

**EEEEK:** Ahh..so the Remy/Neil romance is starting to blosssooom! Hahah. But how is Brody going to feel about this? We also find out that Brody has abusive parents, Lucy lives only with her dad and no one is sure why, Vince and Mallory have a thing going on, and we get introduced to BEN! So, stick around for chapter four and don't forget to review!


	4. Baby, You're Not the Only One

**A/N:** Chapter four, baby. Last chapter was pretty eventful I think. So, here we go. By the way, I don't want you to think that Brody is some like, love sick puppy. For some reason I'm having the most trouble staying in character with him. Haha. I'm not really sure why, but he's a challange.

**Chapter Four - Baby, You're Not the Only One**

_Brody_

I paused in front of the door as I saw Neil quickly kiss Remy on the cheek. I felt like someone had knocked the wind out of me as I walked to my next class.

"Step one to getting over Remy, look at all the fish in sea," Vince said as he fell into step with me. I looked at him.

"What are you talking about?" He rolled his eyes.

"Brode, give it up. I don't think there's one person in the word who doesn't know that you like Remy." I sighed a bit.

"Look," Vince said, nodding in the direction of some blonde girl, "there's Jasmyn Wolfe. Why don't you go talk to her?" Vince obviously didn't know who he was talking to. I'm what you can call really shy. And here comes Vince, who thinks that blondes are the best creation in the world, telling me to talk to Jasmyn. First of all, Jasmyn was basically the most popular girl in school along with her best friend, Cammy Moore. Honestly, I can't stand their guts. Their snobby, rich, stuck up, and annoying. Not to mention out of my league.

"Thanks, but no thanks, Vince," I said as I walked up to my locker. Vince shrugged as I did my combination.

"Suit yourself. It's not my problem if you end up being stuck on Remy your whole life."

"I'm not stuck on Remy.." I mumbled as he walked away. Okay, okay. So maybe I am just a little bit.

_Remy_

I walked slowly into my third period class. So much for loving sopomore year. It had only been two periods and already I was sick of it. The fact that this class had a seating chart written up on the board didn't help. I groaned as I searched for 'Curtis' - last seat in the first row - and sat down in the right spot. A few seconds later, Luke walked into the class and sat in front of me.

"Well, hey. I guess we're English buddies!" he said, a huge grin on his face that reminded me of Neil.

"Guess so," I said, trying to figure out if he was joking when he said 'English buddies'.

"You know," he said, drumming his fingers on my desk, "I've never been so thankful for alphabetical order." Oh yeah. I had completely forgotten that Luke was 'Bourke'.

"Otherwise," he continued, "I might've gotten stuck sitting next to _that_." I looked over to where he was motioning. Sitting in a group together, there was one tall, slim blonde girl, a brunette, and one dirty blonde chick. I recognized the tall blonde as Jasmyn Wolfe, and the brunette as Cammy Moore. The dirty blonde one, I wasn't too sure about.

"Katie Halloway," Luke said after I asked him. The three girls were what you can call the popular group. They were annoying, extremly rich, pretty, and well, better. I scoffed.

"How'd we get stuck in a class with them?" Katie looked over at us and smiled a bit, but it wasn't returned. I rolled my eyes as the bell wrang and our teacher, Mrs. Barnum, walked in. Mrs. Barnum was about as old as the school. She was a port, old lady who dressed in nothing but floral dresses in colors that would make crayola proud. Like, for example, puke green, or submarine yellow.

"Welcome, class, to a new year of school. Before I begin, I shall take roll. Please, excuse me if I get your names wrong." She spoke in a somewhat British accent, and rolled every single 'R'.

"Candice Almasie?"

"Here!"

"Jason Bellingham?"

"Here!"

I looked at Luke, who was tapping his pencil on his desk, impatiently awaiting his turn as if something bad was going to happen.

"Lucas Bourke?"

"Here," he said, with less enthusiasm than the others. Mrs. Barnum looked at the roll sheet, then back at Luke, her glasses nearly falling off of her nose.

"Ah!" she said, dramatically placing a hand to her heart. "You're Chandler's younger brother, aren't you?"

"Here we go.." Luke mumbled as he sank into his seat. Mrs. Barnum let out a heartfelt sigh.

"You're brother was one of the brightest students I've ever taught in my career," she paused, then said in a whisper, "not to mention very good-looking!" She laughed at this comment as if it were the funniest thing on earth.

"Oh, Heavens! And the other one, Neil. Oh my," I heard some of the girls sit up in their seats at the mention of Neil, and somehow found myself glaring at them.

"Now he, he was such a sweetheart. Well," she pushed her glasses up, "he _looked_ like one anyways. Poor thing barely made it out of my class with a D-." Mrs. Barnum sighed in remberance, then went on with roll.

"Remy Curtis?"

"Here." I looked at Luke, who's face was bright red. Aw. I kind of wanted to give him a hug, but that would be sort of awkward in the middle of roll. Honestly, I was finding myself to like the Bourke family almost as much as my own.

About half an hour into the class, while we were taking notes, Luke leaned back in his seat.

"So, you and my brother seem to be hitting it off pretty well," he whispered. I blinked for a second, before answering with a small smile.

"Yeah, guess so."

"What about Brody?" I snapped out of my Neil daze.

"What about him?" Luke sighed.

"Nevermind."

"Mr. Bourke, Ms. Curtis? Is there something you'd like to share with me?"

"No, ma'am," we said in unison. Mrs. Barnum looked at us a bit over the edge of her glasses, then continued with her lecture.

_Mallory_

"You know what I noticed?" Remy said, as she took a bite out of her apple. It was lunch time and Lucy, Vince, Remy, Neil, Brody, Luke, and I were sitting on the little hill in the front of our school.

"What did you notice?" Neil was laying down, his head on Remy's lap and his legs propped up on Vince, who was laying on his stomach. He was flipping through a magazine idley.

"Ben and Erin are never around much."

"Who's Erin?" Vince said as he pushed Neil's legs off of him and sat upright.

"Erin was one of our best friends last year," I explained.

"God. What happened to her?" Lucy said as she looked around the campus. I shrugged.

"Maybe she's on vacation. Who knows?"

"What about Ben?" Remy said.

"I found him." It was basically the first thing Brody had said all lunch. God, that boy was quiet. I followed Brody's gaze and sure enough, there was Ben. Our tall, lanky, blue-eyed Ben. He was chatting up none other than Jamie Brownstein, the quarterback, and his trusty companion Mitch Aiken.

"Oh no."

"Looks like we've lost Benjamin to the dark side," Vince said, taking off his hat and putting it to his chest in mock mourning.

"Bye bye, Ben," Remy said, staring blankly at the other side.

"Aw, I liked Ben.." I said, frowning. We had a few moments of silence.

"Well! Enough of that. I think it's time to check out hot girl, twelve o'clock." Vince jumped up and ran off to talk to some blonde girl (him and his blondes). I guess I made an angry face, because then Lucy asked,

"Mal? What's wrong?"

Oh, nothing. The boy that I think I'm starting to like has basically no intrest in me and just went off to talk to some other girl. You know, the usual.

"Nothing," I said instead, watching as Neil tossed his magazine, hitting Remy in the head.

"Hey!" she yelled, then hit him on the head. Before you knew it, they were in an all out war. I rolled my eyes. They were starting to get annoying.

"Anyways," I said a bit loudly, "how are your lives going, everyone?" Luke looked up at me.

"I almost burned down the chem lab."

"Luke!"

"I said almost.." Lucy looked around.

"You know.." she said, almost like she was talking to herself, "I never see Kory these days.."

"You guys over, or something?" I asked. Vince scoffed.

"Are you kidding? Sorry to break it to you, Luce, but Kory isn't a one woman kind of guy."

Lucy's eyes widend a bit before going back to normal size. I looked at her a bit sympathetically.

"Don't worry, Lucy. I mean, the most you guys did was make-out anyways, right? Nothing too serious."

"I.." Lucy started, then stopped. We were all quiet.

"Lucy. You didn't.." By now, Neil and Remy had stopped flirting like maniacs, and were staring at Lucy.

"Mmm..well.." Lucy's face went crimson.

"Okay. Who, what, when, where, why, and how?" Remy said.

"Minus the how. I don't think I want to know how," I added.

Lucy fumbled with the zipper on her jacket.

"Me and Kory were just, you know, doing the usual. We were at my place, my dad was out of town on a business meeting. It just..sort of happened. I can't really tell you all the details. I don't remember much myself." That whole thing was kind of like a slap in the face. Though Lucy has had her fair share of boyfriends, she was the one who firmly believed in nothing before marriage. Now, after two or three weeks with this Kory guy, she had given it all up. For what, though? He just left her for some other girl, anyways.

Neil stood up. "I don't mean to be insensitive or anything, but you should've seen this coming.." Lucy sighed, but Neil gave her one of his oh-so-charming smiles. "Don't worry about it, though. There's plent of fish in the sea. Better fish." He patted her on the shoulder, then turned back around.

"I don't mean to leave so early, but I've got some stuff to discuss with some people. I'll see you guys later." Neil walked towards Remy and planted a kiss on her forehead before leaving. I looked over at Brody and Luke. Brody was just sitting with his arms crossed, rolling his eyes. Luke, on the other hand, was looking a bit fidgety and nervous.

"Luke, you okay?" I asked. Luke looked up at me, standing up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I think I'm gonna take off the rest of the day though."

_Lucas_

"I'm telling you, buddy, now's the best time to move in."

I was sitting in the room I shared with Neil, where he was uninvitedly solving my girl problems.

"Neil, lay off. I'll make a move when I feel it's right."

"You mean, never," he said, standing up. I groaned, sticking a pillow in my face.

"Come on, Luke," he said, jumping on my bed, causing it to move up and down. "Lucy isn't dumb. I mean sure, every guy at school does want her, but you're different from the rest of them. And she'll notice." Neil stopped moving, and I moved the pillow from my face and looked at him.

"Easy for you to say. You can get any girl you want."

Neil smiled. "Lucas." He never called me that. Except for those few moments that he was being serious. "Things don't always work like they do in those books of yours. You don't need to be some suave, debonair to get a girl. You just need to be, well..you." I rolled my eyes.

"I'm really glad you don't sound cheesy," I said, sarcastically.

"I'm serious, Luke."

I looked at him for a second, and the look in his eyes said that he was. I groaned.

"Jeez, Neil. What do you want me to do about it, though?"

Neil looked at me for a second.

"It's common sense," he said as he got off my bed. Yeah right, I thought. Since when did Neil use common sense? "Talk to her."

Neil shrugged, then stood up to leave.

"Hey, wait a second!" I said, and he turned around.

"How did the, you know, thing go?" Neil looked at me with a sort of sad expression.

"It's all settled. Starting tomorrow."

-----

**SHORT: **I don't know why, but I had some writers block for this chapter. Anywho, next will be better, promise. Please review, by the way. I havn't been getting too many.


	5. Hello, Hello

**A/N:** Yeahh chapter five. I can't wait until this story starts rolling, I have so many ideas for much later chapters. By the way, we're doing a bit of fastforwarding and going to the week before Thanksgiving, so yeah. Oh annnd ps. This chapter might contain mushy maybe gag worth things in it, but don't let that bother you too much. Haha. I'm sorry, but it was necessary for the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders. The end.

**Chapter Five - Hello, Hello**

_Remy_

It was about three weeks into November and my life, for the most part, had been pretty uneventful. Oh, besides the fact that Neil had asked me out. Everything still feels a bit weird, though. Not just with him, with the whole group. It's kind of hard to believe that we all became such good friends so quickly.

Luke and I were sitting in English class, waiting for the bell to ring when this girl, Leslie Morgan, came up to us. Leslie wasn't exaclty the prettiest fish in the sea, but her dad was amazingly rich so she had a bunch of friends. She was a nice girl, though. I wish people would look past appearances.

"Hey guys!" she said as she approached us, a stack of white envelopes in her hand.

"Hey, Leslie."

She handed me and Luke an envelope each.

"This is for my Thanksgiving party. It's the night before Thanksgiving, but I figured that it's no problem since we don't have school the next day anyways."

Leslie was always having some kid of party. I looked at Luke, then smiled.

"Thanks Leslie. I'll be there."

Leslie smiled in return. "Oh! I almost forgot!" she said, as she whipped out four more envelopes.

"Would you mind giving these to Mallory, Lucy, Vince, and um..Brody?" She smiled shyly at the mention of Brody. Usually, I think that kind of stuff is cute, but that just got on my nerves for some reason.

"Sure. Thanks Leslie, bye." I said, and she returned to her seat. Luke scoffed.

"What was that about?"

"What was what about?" Luke smirked a bit.

"You just turned into jealous-mode."

"No I didn't!" I snapped. Luke just shrugged as the bell rang, and Mrs. Barnum walked to her desk. She was going on, and on about verbs or something, but I tuned her out and slipped the invitation out of the envelope. It gave all the details (who, what, and when) and at the bottom, underneath a colored turkey, in big bold letters read, "Theme: Black and White. Semiformal". If you're going to have a theme at least be creative.

I tapped Luke on the shoulder.

"Hey, do you think you're gonna go?" he shrugged.

"Why not? I don't have anything better to do." I glanced down at the invitation again. Leslie didn't know Neil, so I figured he wouldn't be invited, which was kind of a bummer. But to tell you the truth, I'd been doing the one thing I swore I never would. Falling all over him.

_Brody_

The first few weeks of school, everything was cool, but all of a sudden it turned really sucky. For one thing, Neil hadn't been to school for about two weeks, and Lucy one. Mallory and Remy say that Lucy's just been sick, but whenever we ask Luke about Neil, he changes the subject and gets all nervous and stuff. Well, I finally got my driver liscense, if that counts for anything.

Remy had agreed to be my first passanger, so we were driving along until I ran out of gas.

"Welcome to the down side of driving. Gas," Remy said, as I pulled into the nearby gas station.

"Funny, coming from the girl who doesn't even have her permit yet." I stood near the pump for a second, trying to figure all this out. Remy, who was leaning against the front of the car, scoffed.

"Need help?"

"No," I said, even though I really had no idea what I was doing. I took the pump out of its holder and stared at it for a bit.

"Maybe," Remy said, taking the pump and putting it back, "we should ask the people inside." I opened my mouth to protest, but she was already on her way.

"And while we're here, we might as well get something to eat, I'm starving." The inside of the gas station was kind of weird. There was a little bar, along with the market part of the store. There was some guy standing behind the counter, who turned around when he heard the jingle noise the door makes.

"Hello! How can I help.."

"Neil?"

Neil's smiley, 'hey-there-customer' face faded as he stared at us.

"Ah. Hey Brode, Remy."

Remy tilted her head.

"What are you doing here? Is this why you havn't been at school?" Neil fumbled with his hands a bit, and looked from me, to Remy.

"Well, um. It's a long story."

"We've got time," I said, actually curious to the story myself. Neil sighed.

"Have a seat," he said, motioning to the bar stools. Remy and I sat down and he leaned against the counter.

"You see, Chandler's been having a hard time making money at his job. And I figured, well, I wasn't doing too good in school anyways. We need the money. Ah, don't look at me like that, Rem. I had to do it." Remy and I exchanged glances, then looked back at him. Neither of us were really too sure what to say. Neil looked at us with a look I'd never seen on him before, sort of a mix between an apologetic and pleading look. Remy scratched her arm.

"So uh, when do you get off?" Neil looked at the clock.

"About 6:30."

"I'll be at your house around seven. I havn't seen you in a while," she smiled at him, and after a few seconds Neil put on his usual, giant grin.

"Yeah! Great! See you guys later!" Remy stood up and left, but I stayed behind for a second.

"Hey Neil?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you get those gas pump things to work?"

_Remy_

"Luke! It's your turn to do the dishes!"

"What? No way! I did them yesterday!"

"No, _I_ did them yesterday. And Neil did them the day before. It's your turn!"

Dinner at the Bourke's was always intresting. My dad sort of had a mini-fit that I was going to leave him to eat dinner at some boys house, and was quick to point out that my mom was coming tonight, but I told him that Luke and I had an English project to do. My dad still didn't know I had a boyfriend. He would probably go psycho.

I was standing in the kitchen, watching as Chanlder yelled at Luke to wash the dishes, while Luke stood there, impatiently tapping his foot.

"Come on," I felt someone grab my arm, "let's go in the back."

Neil pulled my arm and took me into the backyard. He led me to this swinging chair they had, and we sat down. I always liked sitting in that chair, because if you were there at the right time, you could see the sunset. We were a bit too late to see one at the moment. Neil pulled me to him so that I was resting my head on his shoulder. I still sort of felt a bit nervous and awkward around Neil, I wasn't sure why.

In the backround, we could still hear Chandler yelling.

"The sure do fight a lot," I said.

"Hmm.." Neil answered, as if all of him wasn't there. Most of the time, you only got little bits and pieces of his mind, but they were nice pieces.

"Hey Remy?" he said quietly, after a minute of two of not talking. I looked up at him.

"Wha-" I was interupted though. It was the first time I had ever been kissed in my life, and it was pretty amazing. I would try to explain it to you, but I don't think you'd get it. Plus, you'd probably just think I'm crazy. He pulled back and looked at me.

"Too soon?"

I shook my head.

"No. Just right."

After that, there was a bit of awkward silence..which was soon broken by more screams from Chandler and Luke.

"Welp," Neil said, taking his arm off of me, "hate to ruin a moment, but I should probably go break them up." He kissed me again, this one a little deeper than the first. He grabbed my hands, smiling at me.

"See you tomorrow?" I nodded and he dropped my hands, running instead to, yet again, play super hero. I sighed a bit then whipped out my phone, slowly dialing my dads number.

_Mallory_

After calling Lucy for about the fifth time that night, I decided to give up. The last time I talked to her was last week and when I asked her what's wrong, she replied simply with 'I'm sick'. Something tells me that's not all that's going on.

I collapsed on my bed, sighing. It seems like I've been losing touch with all of my friends. Remy is in Neil-land and there's no telling when she'll be back, and Lucy has this little secret she's keeping from us all. It seems like I'm the only one without anything intresting going on..

"Mallory!" my mom yelled from downstairs, "telephone!" I sat up and picked up the phone in my room, yelling down for my mom to hang up.

"Hello?" I said, wondering who it could possibly be.

"Mallory?"

"Yes..who is this?" The voice only sounded vaguely familiar.

"Oh, sorry. It's Vince." I swear my heart stopped. How did he get my number? Why was he calling me? Why am I suddenly at a loss for words?

"Oh. H-hey Vince."

"Listen," he said, pausing for a bit. "I was just um, wondering if you wanted to, I don't know, see a movie with me tomorrow night? At seven?"

I'm not sure how long I stopped for, but I was brought back to earth by Vince.

"Mallory? I mean, you don't have to go if you don't want I was just-"

"I'd love to go," I said, cutting him off.

"Oh. Well, alright then. See you tomorrow." The phone clicked to indicate he had hung up, and I did the same as well.

Maybe my life was starting to take a turn for the better.

_Kory_

It was nearly ten and I had spend about fifteen minutes waiting for Lucy to show up. I hadn't even spoken to her for a few weeks, and now she expects me to wait around like some puppy. I hope she knows I have more imporant things to be doing.

"Kory?" I hear someone say behind me. I turn around and sure enough, there's Lucy in all glory and I'm reminded why I waste time waiting for her. She's too beautiful for words.

"Hey babe," I say, planting a kiss on her. She smiled a bit, but it seemed a bit forced.

"What's the matter?" She looked at me and for a second I thought she was going to cry.

"I..Kory..promise you won't get mad at me?" I brushed a stray hair behind her ear.

"Promise."

She took in a deep breath, looking from me to the ground then back up.

"I'm..I'm pregnant."

**----------**

**AHH:** Sorry that was so short. And also sorry it to me SOO freaking long to about. And also because I left you at a cliffhanger. So what'd you think? Good? Bad? Reviews/Suggestions are WAAY appreciated. I know it's just strarting to get juicy like, now, but I promise once it starts going it'll be pretty dang good. I hope. Weeeeell, review please. :


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